Author: Sandi Sieger

First published in Onya Magazine, on April 13th, 2011.

Welcome to Melbourne, Sean. How does it feel to be performing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival?

I am very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very excited to be performing in this festival. VERY excited. VERY VERY excited. I’m having trouble truly expressing how excited I am so let’s just say that I’m really excited!

How did you break into comedy? Was it something you worked towards, or did you just fall into it?

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to do something larger than life with my life. When I was a young pipsqueak, I thought I wanted to be a rock star, but I couldn’t play any instruments and while I do have a beautiful singing voice (fuck no I don’t!), I am completely tone deaf, so I’d just scream all the time. As a slightly older pipsqueak, I thought I wanted to be a movie star, but I hate talking about myself and I’m not beautiful, so there’s that. The one thing I could always do was make people laugh and I love doing that. So, when I was a 22 year old pipsqueak, I started doing stand up and never looked back.

You’re quite active on Twitter. What is it about the social networking site that you enjoy?

Seeing how seriously people take Twitter. It’s fucking ridiculous! It’s Twitter! It’s 140 characters of thought that you put out there for people to read when they have nothing better to do, or at least that’s what it should be. No, it’s a religion. People worship Twitter. There are people who’ve become Twitter celebrities. TWITTER! No one should give a flying fuck about twitter. But seriously, follow me on Twitter: @mrseanpatton

You recently made your TV debut on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Did you enjoy the television experience? Do you hope to do more TV in future?

I did. It was great. Sure, you have to boil your whole essence into 4 and a half minutes of clean material that millions of people see for a second or two while they’re flipping through channels looking for something to fall asleep to, but it’s a really cool thing to have under your belt. If you can make those people stop flipping through channels, watch your set, laugh at it before they zonk out and wake up the next day a little happier thus causing them to be a bit more productive at work, then maybe one day our economy will climb out of the shitter and you can feel good about contributing to that. I hope to do a lot more TV. I plan on it.

You live in New York. What’s that like?

New York is amazing. It’s a sensory overload every day. It’s so full of culture! There’s so many different cuisines and so much music and theatre and art and comedy and booze and homeless people and stupid rich arseholes shopping for things they don’t need and crazy people and dickhead cops and drunk college kids pissing in the street and bipolar weather and landlords that charge you an insulting amount of rent. And pizza! Best pizza in da world!

Is this your first time in Australia?

It is! Hopefully not my last.

What are your thoughts on Australia? Can you make any observations on Australia or Australian culture?

You’ll have to come to a show and see me perform to hear my thoughts on Australia. See you then!

Sean Patton is currently performing in Headliners at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. For show times and more information, please click here. To visit his website, please click here.

First published in Onya Magazine, on April 8th, 2011.

Welcome to Melbourne, Paul. How does it feel to be performing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival?

It’s marvellous. I’m renting a lovely 15th-storey apartment with panoramic views of inherently lonely businessmen. I love ‘Letters and Numbers’, your down-trodden version of Countdown, and I like smiling at people on the tram every day; it’s like London in the 1880s really, but with more laughter and more obvious homosexuals.

How did you break into comedy? Was it something you worked towards, or did it just happen?

It all began when I was a student at Oxford, when I realised my maths degree probably wasn’t going to help me meet my idol Ella Fitzgerald. Sadly Ella died just a few weeks after I’d made the career change, but it was too late by that point, chances of a top job in the city had gone, so I pressed on in a bitter rage. ‘No time to muck about’, that was my Uncle’s motto.

You’ve appeared on numerous television shows in the UK. What’s it like working for TV?

It’s awful. You start doing a jigsaw in the dressing room and someone fiddles with it. You buy a cake and someone bins it. Theatricals everywhere padding you in make-up, men wearing hats, women walking around saying things, it’s a bit much really.

You’re quite active on Twitter. What is it about the social networking site that you enjoy?

I like Twittarse because I can look at who my connoisseurs are by gazing at miniature versions of their beautiful faces. It’s good for keeping in touch with showbizness people too, like my comedy wife Fearne Cotton. It also takes away the deep loneliness that is constantly charging through my veins.

You’ve worked with Russell Brand and he claims you’ve made quite the influence on his career. What’s Russell like? Do you like collaborating with other comedians?

Russell is a very talented and magnetic man, he was so ambitious and dedicated from the start that ’twas obvious he was going to be utterly famous one day. I do like collaborating with other comedians, of course. Noel Fielding, Brian Gittins, Dan Clark and Dionne Warwick are some of my favourites.

Is this your first time in Australia?

I think so, but what with the disgraceful mess of Britain’s train network these days, you never know.

What are your thoughts on Australia? Can you make any observations on Australian culture?

The people are much more relaxed here. In London everyone is out for themselves, they leave the fridge door open and rush out into the night screaming. Whereas in Australia people aren’t so bothered about welfare, politics, or financial security, they just slap a few meat shavings on the grill and GET ON WITH IT BABY.

From Mr Paul Foot, Life President of the Guild of Paul Foot Connoisseurs.

Paul Foot is currently performing his show ‘Ash In The Attic’ at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. For show times and further information, click here.

During my recent trip to Sydney, I was fortunate enough to enjoy a delicious high tea at Tea Parlour in Redfern, on behalf of the High Tea Society – a website devoted entirely to the art of high tea around the world .

You can read my review, and check out my photographs, here. Try not to drool too much.

First published in Onya Magazine, on April 7th, 2011.

The more I learn about Eddie Perfect, the more I see him perform, act and sing, the more I realise just how apt it is that a man with so much talent, and so much in the way of clever, carries the surname Perfect.

There’s not a lot to dislike about Eddie Perfect. He’s the genius behind Shane Warne The Musical, one of the stars of Channel 10’s Australian drama Offspring, a composer, performer, singer and comedian, andhe can swivel his hips.

Perfect’s new show, Misanthropology, currently being performed at The Famous Spiegeltent at the Arts Centre as a part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, is a gem of a cabaret show.

It’s a dark, satirical look at modern life – and it’s so spot on, so incredibly on the money – that the rare few people not laughing in the audience are probably the exact people that Perfect is referring to, and dare I say it, they’re the ones that need to hear it most.

Perfect sings and croons his way through the complexities and contradictions of our world, and the people within it. He’s not concerned with being politically correct – a quality I love because it’s such a rarity these days – and the show is intended to make you squirm, just a little bit. And it’s that exact factor, the squirm factor, which stayed with me most after Misanthropology and forced me to question some lurid aspects of our modern culture.

Misanthropology is funny, and that’s because it’s true. If Perfect’s songs, so beautifully brought to life by his magnificent band and exceptional lyrical abilities, weren’t such an accurate description of our culture, I don’t think I would have belly laughed so hard.

Perfect’s show may not be everyone’s cup of tea – if you’re a Kerrie-Anne Kennerley fan then I suggest staying away – but it was definitely mine. His performance is gutsy – truly ballsy – and we need more people like Perfect wading through the bullshit of life and speaking, or singing, the truth.

Eddie Perfect ‘Misanthropology’, Tue-Sat, 8.30pm, Sun 7.30pm at The Famous Spiegeltent at the Arts Centre until April 24th. Tickets: Full $28-32, Concession $29, Tightarse Tuesday $25, Group (10 or more) $26. Click here to purchase tickets.

For more information on Eddie Perfect, visit his website.

First published in Onya Magazine, on March 6th, 2011.

The premise is simple; two teams (the Hearts and the Bones, comprised of some of Melbourne’s funniest comedians) battle it out against each other to create comedy sketches on the spot.

The reality is much, much funnier; using only audience suggestions and a handful of props, The Big Hoo-Haa improvise their way through scenes and songs and scenarios – and they do it all so bloody well.

The Big Hoo-Haa is theatre sports on steroids. It’s Thank God You’re Here without the door and cheesy pre-prepared actors. It’s clever comedy – the kind you walk away from smiling, whilst knowing full well there’s some serious talent and brains involved in making it that way.

Their show, running until the 23rd of April during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, isn’t concerned with being politically correct (my personal highlight from the show I witnessed was the impro ‘9/11 musical’) or generically appealing – The Big Hoo-Haa are only interested entertaining. And if you find yourself at a show, and somehow the scenario has gone from a couple having a drink at a bar, to dwarfs invading a medieval castle, just relax and go with it – because that’s where the biggest hoo-haa’s are to be had.

The Big Hoo-Haa, Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun, 6.30pm at The Order of Melbourne, Level 2, 401 Swanston Street, Melbourne until April 23rd. Tickets: Full $16, Concession $14, Tightarse Tuesday $12, Group (10 or more) $10. Click here to purchase tickets.

For regular Hoo-Haa shows, and more information, visit their website.